Ralph Nader Was Right About Barack Obama

Posted on Mar 1, 2010

We owe Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney an apology. They were right about Barack Obama. They were right about the corporate state. They had the courage of their convictions and they stood fast despite wholesale defections and ridicule by liberals and progressives.

Obama lies as cravenly, if not as crudely, as George W. Bush. He promised us that the transfer of $12.8 trillion in taxpayer money to Wall Street would open up credit and lending to the average consumer. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), however, admitted last week that banks have reduced lending at the sharpest pace since 1942. As a senator, Obama promised he would filibuster amendments to the FISA Reform Act that retroactively made legal the wiretapping and monitoring of millions of American citizens without warrant; instead he supported passage of the loathsome legislation. He told us he would withdraw American troops from Iraq, close the detention facility at Guantánamo, end torture, restore civil liberties such as habeas corpus and create new jobs. None of this has happened.

He is shoving a health care bill down our throats that would give hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to the private health insurance industry in the form of subsidies, and force millions of uninsured Americans to buy insurers’ defective products. These policies would come with ever-rising co-pays, deductibles and premiums and see most of the seriously ill left bankrupt and unable to afford medical care. Obama did nothing to halt the collapse of the Copenhagen climate conference, after promising meaningful environmental reform, and has left us at the mercy of corporations such as ExxonMobil. He empowers Israel’s brutal apartheid state. He has expanded the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where hundreds of civilians, including entire families, have been slaughtered by sophisticated weapons systems such as the Hellfire missile, which sucks the air out of victims’ lungs. And he is delivering war and death to Yemen, Somalia and perhaps Iran.

The illegal wars and occupations, the largest transference of wealth upward in American history and the egregious assault on civil liberties, all begun under George W. Bush, raise only a flicker of tepid protest from liberals when propagated by the Democrats. Liberals, unlike the right wing, are emotionally disabled. They appear not to feel. The tea-party protesters, the myopic supporters of Sarah Palin, the veterans signing up for Oath Keepers and the myriad of armed patriot groups have swept into their ranks legions of disenfranchised workers, angry libertarians, John Birchers and many who, until now, were never politically active. They articulate a legitimate rage. Yet liberals continue to speak in the bloodless language of issues and policies, and leave emotion and anger to the protofascists. Take a look at the 3,000-word suicide note left by Joe Stack, who flew his Piper Cherokee last month into an IRS office in Austin, Texas, murdering an IRS worker and injuring dozens. He was not alone in his rage.

“Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours?” Stack wrote. “Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political ‘representatives’ (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the ‘terrible health care problem’. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.”

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The timidity of the left exposes its cowardice, lack of a moral compass and mounting political impotence. The left stands for nothing. The damage Obama and the Democrats have done is immense. But the damage liberals do the longer they beg Obama and the Democrats for a few scraps is worse. It is time to walk out on the Democrats. It is time to back alternative third-party candidates and grass-roots movements, no matter how marginal such support may be. If we do not take a stand soon we must prepare for the rise of a frightening protofascist movement, one that is already gaining huge ground among the permanently unemployed, a frightened middle class and frustrated low-wage workers. We are, even more than Glenn Beck or tea-party protesters, responsible for the gusts fanning the flames of right-wing revolt because we have failed to articulate a credible alternative.

Chris Hedges wrote:
“It means undertaking the laborious work of building a viable socialist movement”.
____________________________________________________

Although I agree with most of whatHedges has wrote, I find the above quote is ill advised. Any mention of socialism and socialists, scare and turn off a lot of people after decades of 24/7 brain washing.
In my humble opinion, why not call for something similar to Rosevelt’s New Deal which restored faith in government, severly curtailed the influence of the banks and big business, inacted very progressive taxation laws, won WW2 and ushered in decades of prosperity and an expanding prosperous middle class.
Hemoraging of jobs through offshoring and out sourcing have to stop and gradually reversed and NAFTA and WTO have to be repealed or renegotiated.
Don’t blame me, I voted for Cynthia Mckinney and will never vote for a Democrat or a Republican in the future.

I am glad to hear CH calling on people to vote for the second [or third, if u like] party.

A second party might initially campaign for just a few issues: a good health care, end to wars of aggression,right to be informed-educated.

We need to convince people that sybaritic class of life wld never give up their vastly priveleged position as things stand now and stood at the latest since priestly kings of sumer and god kings of akkad, the neighbors of sumer.

Some people had known this for millennia; however, this vital knowledge has always been kept away from peasants as it wld endager the power and plush life styles of the ‘nobility’.tnx

The problem is that any individual or group seeking political power in the current system must somehow become a dutiful part of the system in order to do so. Obama and the Democrats were no different in their assumption of power in 2008.

The true dissident voices, such as Dennis Kucinich or Ralph Nader, are marginalized and have been completely ineffective in spite of their efforts to work within the system. To gain real power, those seeking power must not in any way threaten substantially the disastrous status quo. If they do, they are quickly dismissed by the MSM and face insurmountable obstacles within the current system to obtain any influence. They become like the lone voice of Cindy Sheehan living in a tent outside the halls of power treated as a screwball by our press, our economic, and our governmental systems.

Our political system is like any system. As long as it has the internal mechanisms to self correct, it can be diverted from a disastrous course. The problem now is that such an internal mechanism is just not there. When you are speeding to a cliff, there comes a point where braking will not help. To make it even worse, our political system is like a 2010 Toyota.

Sorry to say this, but nothing will change until the current political, economic, and governing system goes over the cliff and becomes unraveled.

In the Republican Party, it will start with major fractures between the authoritarian, neoconservative, militarist elements and the atavistic libertarians. The Democratic Party that placed all its chips on St. Barack will be fractured in two between those courtiers who remain loyal to him and those who feel betrayed by him.

Look for more chaos and developing political and economic instability as the country becomes more and more ungovernable. Where this will all end up is anyone’s guess.

Well said Mr. Hedges. I took a break from my usual 3rd party candidate vote to vote for Obama because I thought he created a positive movement behind him that might be influential. Alas, he turned his back on that movement, so I am back to voting for people who more authentically reflect my views. I always thought the hostility toward Ralph Nadar and other 3rd party candidates was unfair and undemocratic. Why should the two corporate parties be the only ones allowed in? I never felt that he lost the election for Al Gore, though many disagree. He had a right to be in the mix. Is this a democracy or not?? (I know, Not. But isn’t that the goal?) Nadar and McKinney, their running mates and the other Green candidates before McKinney are brave people to have hung in there among all the hostility, humiliation and discrediting. Their visions are on the mark. I’d like to see what they have to say taken more seriously, even if election to high office is not yet forthcoming. Why do we shut reasonable people out? I know why people already in power do, why corporations do; but why us, the regular people who decide what is best for us and suffer so under the policies of the rich and “powerful?”

All you had to do was investigate Obama’s history in Illinois to understand him. Product of the Chicago Democratic machine, protege of Tony Rezko, opponent of the Iraq War in a speech nobody has a recording of that was never reported by the local media at the time it was made…

You Obots failed miserably to do your homework during the primaries. You really knew nothing about him but like the good sheeple you are, you blindly supported him. And anyone who dared to ask questions about Obama you immediately branded a racist.

Chris: “We are, even more than Glenn Beck or tea party protesters, responsible for the gusts fanning the flames of right-wing revolt because we have failed to articulate a credible alternative.”

Goddammit, it’s not a failure to articulate: it’s that you — speak for yourself, white man — and the rest of the left don’t HAVE a credible alternative TO articulate. If you did, you’d have no problem articulating it at all. None. The easiest thing to articulate in a country speeding to hell in a hand basket is a credible alternative. Problem is, you don’t have one.

It starts with economics. Without that, you can pretty much kiss the rest away. If the best you have to offer is tweaks for capitalism, you’re screwed. And that’s all you’ve got.

Well, it doesn’t stop there. No. This is all the more pathetic because a credible, alternative economic was articulated lucidly, exhaustively, in plain and simple language over a hundred years ago by Henry George. His first book, Progress and Poverty, was the second-bestselling book in America in the nineteenth century; second only to the Bible. His economics immediately began to gain popularity. The sky was the limit. What happened?

Well, how about getting off your stuck-with-no-answers ass and finding out?

Progress and Poverty, right there on the Web, ready for free downloading. You haven’t read it. Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney haven’t read it. Why should I, or anyone else, take you or “the left” seriously while you continue to bask in your ignorance? Eh? Answer that, why dontcha?

“The illegal wars and occupations, the largest transference of wealth upward in American history and the egregious assault on civil liberties, all begun under George W. Bush, raise only a flicker of tepid protest from liberals when propagated by the Democrats.”
I am no longer surprised by the Obama defenders who now embrace Bush policies because Obama has endorsed them and made them his own.

If I had no other reason to get in front of the computer early on a Monday I would do so only to get my dose of Chris Hedges. Bravo.

About the recent terrorist in Austin (filled his plane with gasoline and flew it into a building full of people).. That man had a lot to say. Some of what he wrote resonated with an anxious public and especially the parts Mr. Hedges chose to repeat here.

I am sympathetic to much of that man’s story.. and that’s how I interpreted much of it, as a story. The cameo appearance of the urban legend cat-food eating elderly widow especially brought out the critic in me.

Yet it seems his personal and financial problems were maybe as much a result of his own actions and decisions as anything in the tax code. The information he gave about his business plans and associations could be interpreted to mean he set out to game the Tax code as a plan from the start. It didn’t work and that was his main beef.

Lots of people have trouble with the IRS.. that man made a career out of it.. Then he gave up in a way that made himself a hero to some people. Maybe he came out on top after all?

usa—The problem is that Mr. O is not fixing anything. He is basically maintaining his predecessor’s policies. Only the talk and style have changed.

If I were in Mr. O’s shoes, though, I would have little motivation to change anything, since the Left (except for a few radicals) seems to be totally inert. Where’s the big anti-war demonstration, for instance?

The hardest three words for a person to say: “I was wrong”. Those who voted for Obama now steadfastly close their eyes to his egregious betrayals, and continue to hope, hope, hope for the messiah to reveal his true identity. They are so proud to have installed the first “black man” in the white house, that it is impossible to say the three magic words above, which alone would release them from the spell of their delusions about Obama. Prior to the election I was the recipient of much good natured ridicule from my liberal friends for expressing my support for Nader. They told themselves that after all I had always been a little quirky. In some ways I wish they had been right, but reality has proved otherwise. However, they are protected from this sobering knowledge by their self-congratulatory sleep. I, along with Chris Hedges, am afraid it may be too late for our fragile democracy when they wake up.

Go Right Young Man, March 1 at 8:53 am
In light of his latest screed it could not be more
clear that Mr. Hedges completely fails to understand
how or why the world turns.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whoa there young buffalo!
Your ignorance far exceeds your intelligence.
And history would not support you either.
Here on an anonymous blog, unsubstantiated pot shots
are easy; exactly how does Hedges not understand how
the world turns?
I’ll wait for your specific reply.

You’ve peeked my interest. What does a CIA Operative look like? Would it apply to anyone who happens to notice how odd and wrong Mr. Hedges was when he spent several years claiming that Iraq, GITMO, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Patriot Act, enhanced interrogations, renditions and Domestic Surveillance were all obvious signs that a “Neo-Con fascist Cabal” hijacked the White House?

“Let us not forget that it was Mr. Hedges who, for several years, steadfastly claimed that Iraq, GITMO, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Patriot Act, enhanced interrogations and Domestic Surveillance, for example, were all sure signs that a “Neo-Con fascist Cabal” hijacked the White House. “

America won’t have a “democracy” until it abandons it’s ridiculous two
party system, which in fact is a threesome in bed, the Dems, the Pubs and
Corporate America. American Democracy is both a myth and an illusion.

As usual Mr Hedges misses a learning opportunity. In place of learning the difference between campaigning and governing Mr. Hedges, not unlike a petulant whining child, goes about denigrating everyone who does not see the world as he does.

Let us not forget that it was Mr. Hedges who, for several years, steadfastly claimed that Iraq, GITMO, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Patriot Act, enhanced interrogations and Domestic Surveillance, for example, were all sure signs that a “Neo-Con fascist Cabal” hijacked the White House.

In light of his latest screed it could not be more clear that Mr. Hedges completely fails to understand how or why the world turns.

“It is time to walk out on the Democrats. It is time to back alternative third-party candidates and grass-roots movements, no matter how marginal such support may be. If we do not take a stand soon we must prepare for the rise of a frightening protofascist movement, one that is already gaining huge ground among the permanently unemployed, a frightened middle class and frustrated low-wage workers. “